Sound Healing Workshop

Over the summer, I fell in love with and invested in some Crystal Tones Crystal Healing Bowls. My first one spoke to me as I was waiting to go into a treatment at the Amaryllis Healing Centre in Cochrane. It was the Grandmother Bowl. Her golden sheen called to me from the furthest corner of the shelf and when I played her it brought tears to my eyes. It instantly made me feel connected to my grandmother who had passed the February before. Although it was close to $1000 I bought it…on credit. I was concerned about how I was going to pay it back but something in me told me to trust. That same summer I bought two more, completely clueless as to how I was going to afford them. After the summer, my dad received my grandmother’s inheritance. I knew he had plans for the money and didn’t anticipate any trickling down my way. Until I met my mom at the bank and she wrote me a cheque saying my dad wanted me to have a little bit of the inheritance. The amount paid for two of the bowls including the grandmother bowl. I was overcome with emotion that day and felt that these bowls would help people in a way I hadn’t had the ability to see at the time. They have since followed me to my yoga classes I teach each week and even made an appearance at one of my writer’s workshops. The effects on people have been somewhat of a mystery but the commonality is that they want to hear them play longer.

The Bowls with their friends from Tibet

Leela Eco Spa and Studio made an offer to its teachers for them to showcase their talents in a monthly workshop of their choice. I immediately took them up on the offer and grabbed the first time slot available. I thought I was going to be doing a self-healing workshop and bringing an introduction to Reiki to the table. What I was requested to do was a sound healing workshop. Although I felt I had no qualifications and no idea where to start, I followed the request of my students, hoping I could live up to their expectations. I asked the owner of Amaryllis Healing Centre if she would be willing to bring her plethora of bowls to the workshop so that I could teach yoga while she played. She agreed and I hit the books. My biblio-guides were Ted Andrews, Christine Stevens and Bri. Maya Tiwari I read as much as I could and put together a workshop including yoga and the bowls, sound and its relationship to the Chakra system, some experimentation and a mediation. The workshop not only sold out but they opened the capacity to the point where I wasn’t sure if the bowls would fit in the studio. The response was overwhelming. On the day of the workshop, however, I had trouble getting a hold of Martha who was supposed to join me from Amaryllis. Finally, 30 minutes before I was supposed to run the workshop, she responded to me telling me she had gotten the day wrong and she was snowshoeing in the Kananaskis, so she was unable to make it. There was no way I could teach yoga and play the bowls at the same time so I cried. A lot. That is until my friends Geneva Robins and Jamie Hyatt came to my rescue. The lovely and talented (and fellow yoga teacher) Jamie Hyatt was going to teach yoga while I played my few bowls that I own and my Reiki Master and spiritual guide Geneva gave me a quick minute Reiki session so that I could get my emotions in check and the show went on. The practice was profound and without introducing anyone to the bowls, several students had grandparent “stuff” come up during the practice. There was healing and laughter and tears and wisdom floating around the room for three hours. It truly was a sacred space.

The next day four different people told me that they felt like “brand new women” the next day. I am honoured to be a witness to the profundity of what sound can do. So honoured that I get to do it all over again on April 11, 2015. I will offer you the homework I gave in the workshop which will activate the Chakras and also move a person through any creative blocks. This is an exercise I found in Bri. Maya Tiwari’s book: The Path of Practice: A Woman’s Book of AyurvedicHealing. Chant the bija sounds in this sequence for 7 minutes daily at sunrise or sunset, Om, ham, yam, ram, vam, lam. Each bija sound corresponds to each Chakra. I have been chanting it at sunset and I am noticing my dreams are more lucid and the ideas are flowing more freely in my waking life. I invite you to try it no matter how silly you may feel. Our voices are our most valuable sound healing tool.